This blog is designed to serve as a repository of analyses, news reports and press releases related to the issue of RERAPATIONS within the framework of the Extraordinary Chambers in Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a.k.a. the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Analysis: "Japan can help Cambodia's quest for justice"

This is an analysis of an article published earlier on this blog under the above title.

The article does not seem to be much more than a space-filler. The author opens up with a factual misrepresentation of the timeline of the process when she asserts that Kaing Guek Iev will be tried "later this year". This goes against the grain of the latest statement of the CIJs who placed the beginning of Duch's trial somewhere "in early 2009".

The rest of the article does not help the infrastructural defects of its beginning either, as the author spends an inordinate amount of space giving the reader a rundown of the latest on the ECCC. The reader, thus, cannot help but wonder where exactly this is going and, as I did, beginning to belt ahead looking for the word 'Japan' due to the reasonable expectation of such the title of said article had built. When Japan finally gets mentioned, the content which it pertains to is really not worth the buildup, as the author puts forward her opinion that "they [the Japanese] should insist upon significant reforms, including conditioning pledges on the ECCC improving its transparency and addressing the alleged corruption charges". This is a great quixotic and yet incredibly underresearched statement as anyone familiar with the history of Japan's funding of the Cambodian process of development knows that the Japanese never played hard ball with the Cambodian government, even when it came to matters of much more significance to the Japanese than this process and even when it was pertinent to contributions far more sizable than anything Japan has or will contribute to this process. There is, therefore, absolutely no reason to believe that Japan will make its funding conditional -- provided there will be such additional funding -- this time around. Why the article then?